HTML helps to define the structure of a Web page. It is useful to help set up paragraphs, headers, and default fonts so that a user can always read the text regardless of whether or not they have the font installed on their own personal computer. The acceptance of HTML by Web page designers has allowed them to think of a document as a way of accessing information, rather than a collection of static pages that can only be read when downloaded.
When someone types in a URL or clicks on a Web page link, the browser requests a document from a Web server via the Hypertext Transport Protocol, or HTTP. The server then sends the document back to the user, which is displayed on the browser. The things that are contained in the document (text, photos, audio and video files, etc.) were all put there using HTML structure.
Monday, October 18, 2010
History of HTML
HTML, along with Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) and uniform resource locator (URL), were created by Tim Berners-Lee in the latter part of the 1980s. Berners-Lee was collaborating in Switzerland at the CERN physics laboratory with another scientist by the name of Robert Calliau. When Berners-Lee was faced with the problem of organizing his notes, he created HTML to make the information accessible and easy to link.
At first, Berners-Lee was faced with the problem of only being able to use his creations on his own personal computer. In an article on Berners-Lee for Time magazine, Joshua Quittner asked the question: "But what if he wanted to add stuff that resided on someone else's computer? First he would need that person's permission, and then he would have to do the dreary work of adding the new material to a central database. An even better solution would be to open up his document—and his computer—to everyone and allow them to link their stuff to his. He could limit access to his colleagues at CERN, but why stop there? Open it up to scientists everywhere! Let it span the networks! In Berners-Lee's scheme there would be no central manager, no central database and no scaling problems. The thing could grow like the Internet itself, open-ended and infinite. …Sohe cobbledtogether a relatively easy-to-learn coding system—HTML—that has come to be the lingua franca of the Web. It's the way Web-content creators put those little colored, underlined links in text, add images, and so on."
Because of his accomplishments, Berners-Lee is considered the father of the World Wide Web and he has received many awards and accolades for his contributions to the world of computers and technology. Awards and accolades may be the only thing he received for his creations. As Quittner put it: "You'd think he would have at least got rich; he had plenty of opportunities. But at every juncture, Berners-Lee chose the non-profit road, both for himself and for his creation."
At first, Berners-Lee was faced with the problem of only being able to use his creations on his own personal computer. In an article on Berners-Lee for Time magazine, Joshua Quittner asked the question: "But what if he wanted to add stuff that resided on someone else's computer? First he would need that person's permission, and then he would have to do the dreary work of adding the new material to a central database. An even better solution would be to open up his document—and his computer—to everyone and allow them to link their stuff to his. He could limit access to his colleagues at CERN, but why stop there? Open it up to scientists everywhere! Let it span the networks! In Berners-Lee's scheme there would be no central manager, no central database and no scaling problems. The thing could grow like the Internet itself, open-ended and infinite. …Sohe cobbledtogether a relatively easy-to-learn coding system—HTML—that has come to be the lingua franca of the Web. It's the way Web-content creators put those little colored, underlined links in text, add images, and so on."
Because of his accomplishments, Berners-Lee is considered the father of the World Wide Web and he has received many awards and accolades for his contributions to the world of computers and technology. Awards and accolades may be the only thing he received for his creations. As Quittner put it: "You'd think he would have at least got rich; he had plenty of opportunities. But at every juncture, Berners-Lee chose the non-profit road, both for himself and for his creation."
Sunday, October 17, 2010
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